This blog is dedicated to service members and veterans who, like me, never realized the implications of their military training.
The military taught us how to Armor Up for war, this blog can help you Armor Down to thrive as a civilian.

NewYears IED

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Once More Unto The Breach

Once a warrior always a warrior, Hooah. It's pretty simple really. For some the Warrior is in their blood.

One of my closest buddies is a Vietnam Veteran. I remember having a conversation with him about a thought process I have almost every time I go to church.

"As I sit down in the pew, preparing for worship, I image a scenario where bad guys rush down the isle and take everyone hostage. What would I do, how would I help."

After I told him this fantasy he looked at me, smiled, and said he does the same thing.

The fact of the matter is that I will always try to help and protect others.

I have realized that in order to do this I must continue to hone my ability to go into the shadows.

Now I used to think that the only thing protecting me from the shadow side was my H&K USP .45

This makes perfect sense considering the emphasis my military training placed on weapons. But now, as a warrior living a civilian lifestyle, I understand that what I fear can't be diminished by a firearm. My opponent is much more subtle.

What I fear is not being good enough. What I fear is not having what it takes to get the job done, to be successful, to be a good husband or father. This fear has driven my life.

The worse part about this fear is that I can't blow its friggen head off without hurting myself. Therefore I must learn to live in harmony with it.

As you all know meditation is a tool I use for internal training. Well this week I've been studying a meditation protocol called iRest and through this training I have begun the practice of safely going into my deepest fear and harmonizing with it.

I will not go into detail here how the protocol works, but there came a point during the meditation in which I was holding my greatest fear and it's opposite in my awareness at the same time. It never occurred to me to use meditation to do this but after following the protocol it made perfect sense.

The fact that I managed to get to this place means that my shadow side is no longer off limits.

Bottom line: I was able to sit in the shadow side of my soul and return unscathed.

Tell me what's more Warrior than that.

This post was guided by the 60th stanza of the Art of Peace, a book written by Morihei UeshibaArmor Down has a website. Check it out.

If you like the AD Facebook page and I'll email you the PDF of a book called "Mindfulness in Plain English".

Armor Down website

About Me

Regardless of branch, we service members were trained from day one that being hyper-vigilance and putting the mission first meant the difference between life and death.
Down range these fundamentals are force multipliers for the military, but back home they can contribute to dis-ease for the individual.
I developed the training principles of Armor Down by dedicating 114 weeks of my life to the study of The Art of Peace (AOP), the practice of Mindfulness to tame my hyper vigilant mind and the use of exercise to re-train my mind to listen to my body instead of ignore it. This Blog represents the first example of how a service member can use the AOP as a path to thriving as a civilian.